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162 the u.s. war on trafficking a press release aptly titled “Why We Support Japan’s New Immigration Policy on Entertainers,” Carmaletia Nuqui, the executive director of the Development Action Women’s Network of the Philippines (DAWN), an advocacy group for entertainers and Filipino-Japanese children, expressed its support for the new migration law that “requires Filipino entertainers to complete at least two years of formal courses in music, dancing or singing, or have at least two years experience in the entertainment industry before they can be qualified to work in Japan.” This supposedly ensures that Filipino women “will really be working as singers and dancers in Japan” (Nuqui, 2004). In the press release, DAWN proceeded to critique the Philippine government for failing to deal with corruption in the emigration process, alluding to the relation of indenture that links promotion agencies, talent managers, and overseas performance artists. Ironically, DAWN, in doing so, did not recognize how the increased professionalization of the job might in fact not protect overseas performance artists but instead make them more vulnerable to trafficking. The longer training required of entertainers does not necessarily translate to improved professional status as argued by representatives of DAWN and the government of Japan but can mean a longer period of training for overseas performance artists under the control of managers in the Philippines. As I noted earlier, this can mean a greater likelihood of indenture. The possibility of their aggravated indenture strongly suggests that the solutions posed by Japan do not necessarily prevent trafficking but instead place prospective migrants at greater risk of being trafficked. Revisiting Feminist Concerns over Trafficking Trafficking is a serious issue that impacts hundreds of thousands of people globally, including those in Japan whose lives I have examined. Yet, as noted earlier, feminists have become wary of antitrafficking efforts as a political and social issue because of the usurpation of the effort as a political campaign by the United States. A close look at the situation of migrant Filipino entertainers in Japan shows that the U.S. solution to trafficking is unworkable. The morally dogmatic and paternalistic stance that calls for the u.s. war on trafficking 163 the rescue of hostesses fails to address their situation. At the same time, it calls attention to our need to develop more nuanced solutions to combat trafficking, particularly solutions with a bottom-to-top perspective that addresses the self-identified concerns of trafficked persons. The emphasis on prosecution and prevention in the U.S war on trafficking has left many feminists wary. Some feminists view antitrafficking efforts of the United States as a backlash against the independent migration of women (Agustin, 2002; Lindstrom, 2002: Long, 2004). According to Laura Agustin, it is no coincidence that the heightening of the antitrafficking campaign, which discourages the migration of women, coincides with the rise in women’s migration resulting from globalization (Agustin, 2002). The independent scholar Lynellyn Long similarly observes: “When trafficking becomes an issue, it may be used to control women’s and girls’ bodies —and is often based on a politics of fear rather than empowerment. The threat of trafficking is used to remind all girls and women that if they do not behave in certain socially acceptable ways and particularly if they are too mobile, they place themselves at great risk” (Long, 2004: 25). Prevention efforts for the most part discourage women’s migration with various campaigns that warn them of “dangers of sexual and other abuse should they cross the border” (Demleitner, 2001: 270). By discouraging women’s migration, the antitrafficking campaign of the United States imposes its moral boundaries for gender: women should stay inside and not outside the home. Feminists also question the moral policing of women’s sexuality in the U.S. antitrafficking campaign. Notably, TVPA is as much an antiprostitution act as it is an antitrafficking act. As such, it is perhaps not surprising that TVPA has not had any impact on the migration of Filipino domestic workers. TVPA has affected only the flow of Filipino “entertainers” to Japan. The 2004 TIP Report claims that “prostitution fuels trafficking” (U.S. Department of State, 2004: 15). For the most part, the law conflates migrant sex work with trafficking, removing women’s agency to choose sex work as a profession. As one of the bill’s authors, Representative Christopher Smith, notes, “[TVPA] emphatically rejects the principle that commercial sex should be regarded as legitimate form of ‘work’” (U.S. Congressional Report, 2001). Agreeing with...

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